Search giant Google recently paid £242 million to purchase DeepMind Technologies, a London-based firm that specializes in artificial intelligence, according to MailOnline.

The artificial intelligence software company was founded two years ago by Mustafa Suleyman, Shane Legg and Demis Hassabis, a 37-year-old computer genius and neuroscientist. It was also supported by Founders Fund, a venture firm created by Facebook investor Peter Thiel.

While DeepMind has not yet manufactured anything commercially, Google still forked up a hefty amount for its skills and knowledge on artificial intelligence. In fact, it represented the company’s largest single acquisition in the UK and Europe as a whole.

According to Hassabis, his company is very excited to join the tech giant as the move should speed up the development of self-thinking machines and software.

“This partnership will allow us to turbo-charge our mission to harness the power of machine learning tools to tackle some of society’s toughest problems and help make our everyday lives more productive and enjoyable,” he explained.

DeepMind’s website reveals that the firm utilises the best available techniques from neuroscience and machine learning to create multi-purpose learning algorithms.

Market watchers speculated that Facebook might have also set its sights on acquiring the AI firm, which presently employs 75 personnel.

Google’s acquisition of DeepMind Technologies also follows recent purchases of seven companies that are involved in robotics. These include humanoid-robot maker Meka and Industrial Perception, which designs machines that specialise in loading trucks and packaging goods.